


some token of hope

by Sylvalum



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Set Ambiguously Between Lelouch Taking the Throne and Pendragon Blowing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylvalum/pseuds/Sylvalum
Summary: He feels Lelouch’s huff of laughter against the palm he has pressed to his side – and does he not understand how unfunny this is, he can’t die here,now,looking like Euphemia with gut wounds to match, the bastard. He says, lips curling around the words with far too much mirth, “Catching the culprits took precedence.”“I believe he was waiting for you,” says CC. She stands from her armchair and pads over to them. “What else?”
Relationships: Kururugi Suzaku/Lelouch Lamperouge | Lelouch vi Britannia
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	some token of hope

**Author's Note:**

> “In joined hands there is still some token of hope, in the clenched fist none.” -Victor Hugo, _Toilers of the Sea_

Emperor Lelouch strides down the ornate staircase of the city’s town hall while an aide runs ahead to open the door of the car. Suzaku trails after Lelouch, two Geassed guards following him, and CC’s the last one out of the building. There’s a light breeze; the air is brisk and the sky clear. Suzaku’s eyes slide away from CC to scan every face in the street, catching on a person hiding in a doorway for a second, then lingering on the empty windows of the buildings across the street.

When the car explodes Lelouch freezes in place and Suzaku hauls him away bodily, pulling him towards himself.

“CC!” he yells. Smoke’s pouring from the wreck and the aide’s dead body is slumped in the middle of the pavement, bleeding out of the head, limbs bent unnaturally. That could’ve been Lelouch. Could still become Lelouch.

Lelouch struggles against Suzaku’s grip “The car already exploded,” he argues. “It’s not dangerous for me to take a look unless the perpetrator is literally here and waiting to finish me off in which case this is counterproductive anyway, so let me _go_ , Suzaku. I need to-“

CC reaches them, wordlessly taking hold of Lelouch’s arm and pulling him to the side. Suzaku scans their surroundings wildly but he’s still too late when his Geass jerks his body away from Lelouch and away from the gun shot. CC crumples in his place and Lelouch grabs her, not quite catching her and so he sinks to the pavement with her and cups her face in his hands. Her eyes are wide and dead. Lelouch brushes the blood off her forehead in a motion that is both shocked and nearly tender – as if CC hasn’t died in front of him several times already.

On the fourth floor of the third building across the street from them the sniper gets up and hastily backs away from the window.

Suzaku grits his teeth, no time to pursue not now, and yanks Lelouch to his feet. CC slips from his grip and Suzaku grabs her and shoves her at the closest guard, pulling Lelouch with him as he starts walking and says, “Get back inside of the town hall, this situation is getting out of control. Now, Lelouch!”

The Lancelot Albion wouldn’t directly improve this situation but Suzaku hates how vulnerable they are out here in the open street all the same.

“Two assassination attempts at once, how bold,” Lelouch says, thinking rapidly out loud even as Suzaku rushes him away. “The major is from an old noble family, of course, so she’d have more than enough reason to hate me, but she would’ve had me killed inside the town hall, so it’s more likely someone else…”

It could be _any_ slighted ex-noble daring enough to try it. It was inevitable that something like this would happen with the way things are set to happen, sooner or later, and honestly Suzaku’s surprised it took this long. He’s utterly unsurprised by this assassination attempt – and still displeased with it. They get inside of the town hall and Suzaku ushers Lelouch into the first available conference room with a door and pushes him to sit in one of the sofas, directing the guard to dump CC on the sofa next to him. “Really,” says Lelouch. “If anyone’s trying to assassinate me it means our plan is working. They’re starting to focus on me.”

And everything is done for their plan and only the plan, the great grand plan, yes, of course, obviously, and it’s Suzaku’s job to make sure Lelouch doesn’t get himself killed or even harmed before they’re done, which is why Suzaku grits his teeth as he hovers over him. “Are you hurt?” he bites out. “Your Majesty.”

You idiot.

There’s blood all over the front of his white embellished robes from where he’d held CC.

Lelouch considers him. “Go after the perpetrator,” he says at last. Eyes glimmering coldly, but fondly, but calculatingly, but tiredly, and for a second they understand each other completely. “That’s what you were waiting for me to say, wasn’t it?”

CC struggles to sit up, waking from death, and Suzaku notes that if Lelouch’s shield, his co-conspirator and oldest accomplice, is back in the game then Lelouch will probably not die within the next fifteen minutes. CC has enough sense to keep him alive, so if she’s ready then Suzaku is free to do his job. He turns on his heel and leaves.

* * *

There is nothing but the future.

They killed the past. Lelouch rejected Charles and Marianne’s attempt to take the world for themselves and Suzaku knew it as surely then as he does now: the past doesn’t matter. It’s over and done with, long gone and buried. What-ifs are meaningless and a waste of time. Regret is similarly meaningless. Actions don’t matter, only results. What Zero always wanted to teach Suzaku he has finally managed to do as Lelouch. Doubt is the same as fearing the consequences which is the same as regretting the deed before it’s done and neither of them will be able to hesitate anymore, ever again.

When Suzaku kills Lelouch he won’t feel regret. Suzaku is used to carrying out tasks without receiving any thanks or recognition. He’s used to doing things he thought he’d never do out of his own free will. He is used to rising from the ashes of everything he’d ever known only to continue struggling onward. He is used to duty.

On the perfect day, chosen with utmost care, Suzaku will kill Lelouch, and that will be that. But before that moment comes _no one_ is allowed to harm Lelouch.

No one. Nothing. There can be no exceptions.

Suzaku assumes control of all the soldiers and police stationed in the area together with Lelouch’s Geassed guards and blocks off the whole area around the town hall, ten blocks in every direction. No traffic in nor out. Lelouch’s reign will be very short, so it must also be very loud and bold. Demonstrative. He works hard to keep up appearances of being a certain way, and travelling around the country to personally strip especially prominent nobles of their titles is just one part of it. Whenever something happens Emperor Lelouch sets an example, makes a huge production out of it. Something the history books will not forget. Public spectacle.

Suzaku will find the would-be assassin and see them nailed to a wall.

* * *

It takes the military a whole 50 minutes to get their hands on the shooter; as Suzaku waits he makes a call, retrieves his weapons from the wreck of their car and changes into a clean uniform. He goes back into the town hall and finds the room he’d left Lelouch and CC in. CC’s moved to an armchair where she lies sprawled, legs dangling off the armrest and head tipped back. Her clothes are in some places misted with fine red droplets from the blood spray, and in some places soaked entirely in it.

Lelouch is still on the sofa, now holding a laptop. A single Geassed guard stands next to the sofa with empty eyes, holding up two clean shirts and two pairs of trousers. Lelouch is still wearing his blood-soaked robes, typing. He doesn’t lift his head when Suzaku enters the room.

“What news have you of the outside world,” says CC, and tilts her head back to look at him upside-down.

“You should change into clean clothes,” says Suzaku to the both of them. He’s not exactly pleased with their apathy in regard to taking care of themselves, when them doing that is what would be the most helpful at the moment. Of course the military haven’t managed to catch anyone yet. What were they expecting? He reaches for Lelouch’s laptop; Lelouch pulls away.

“Security cameras caught the explosion, and before that, the two people who rigged the car to blow,” he says. “The perpetrators, whose identities I currently do not have, were hired by an old noble family who publicly supported the previous emperor. They live in the area and they’re rich; ergo, they’re the only ones who’d be stupid enough to try something today.”

Tape from a security camera is playing on Lelouch’s laptop. Suzaku says, “Get someone to identify the culprits, then,” and when he reaches for the laptop again Lelouch lets him take it. Lelouch orders the Geassed guard to get people started on that and Suzaku hands over the laptop to him in exchange for the clean clothes. As the guard leaves Suzaku sets the clothes down in the sofa next to Lelouch.

CC swings her legs off the armrest, putting her feet on the floor. She eyes the two of them.

Suzaku helps Lelouch free himself of the ridiculous robe, underneath which his white shirt is still bloodied. In a specific pattern. Suzaku’s eyes narrow and he pulls up Lelouch’s shirt before he can say anything – and there, of course Lelouch was hit by shrapnel from the explosion, blood smeared over his stomach, scarlet and brown and look, there’s still metal in him. Suzaku calmly assesses the wounds and what should be done – and Suzaku, the other part of him, says through gritted teeth, “Why haven’t you tended to these.”

He feels Lelouch’s huff of laughter against the palm he has pressed to his side – and does he not understand how unfunny this is, he can’t die here, _now_ , looking like Euphemia with gut wounds to match, the bastard. He says, lips curling around the words with far too much mirth, “Catching the culprits took precedence.”

“I believe he was waiting for you,” says CC. She stands from her armchair and pads over to them. “What else?”

Suzaku ignores her. He makes Lelouch pull the shirt over his head and marches over to the door, telling the first guard outside to bring his majesty a first-aid kit. God forbid the emperor die. And this won’t be the end of it, either. They’ll have to get Lelouch to a proper hospital for real medical care as soon as they can leave this building, which will be as soon as the culprits have been apprehended.

But until then Lelouch has to be made to look presentable. He can show no weakness to the world, nothing that could ever be mistaken for softness.

Lelouch was always more prone to injuries than Suzaku, stumbling where Suzaku leapt with ease on familiar stones. Learning from military training and harassment and assassination attempts and Geass have made Suzaku nearly untouchable. Becoming Zero and becoming the enemy of Suzaku and later becoming emperor and enemy of the whole world has made Lelouch a massive target.

Like Lelouch will trust Suzaku with his death, he presently trusts him with his life. Suzaku will guard his life with a ruthlessness he did not yet posses when Euphie needed it – and Suzaku will tend to his wounds, if that’s what Lelouch needs.

CC watches Suzaku remove the metal splinters from the wounds. Takes a cloth and disinfectant from the bag and wipes away the blood. Her hands are perfectly clean and washed despite the blood stuck in her hair, eyelashes. Lelouch is not used to pain like they are and lets slip a grimace at the sting of the liquid, and then he watches quietly as Suzaku takes over once more, taping gauze in place. Something which could be amusement or exhaustion, or could be something else, softens Lelouch’s eyes.

There are things he’ll never get to do with another human. Tender things he’ll never be allowed again, to do with anyone else than the two people currently in this room. Suzaku knows this because it’s the same for him. In a matter of months Lelouch will be dead and Suzaku will be Zero and they will never hold a human hand ever again.

When Suzaku held Euphie’s hand as she died, he wished with blazing intensity as strong as his hatred that Lelouch would die exactly as he now soon will, alone and hated by everyone. That he would never know kindness or human touch again because in Suzaku’s eyes he’d become inhuman. Reigns crumble and cities turn to dust and now, in the present, Suzaku has no room left for regret. He reaches out to take Lelouch’s hand. He folds his cold hand with long clever fingers into his own two and meets Lelouch’s eyes, squeezing his hand once before letting go.

There will be no opportunity for murderer and victim to say goodbye when the day comes, not like Suzaku had sat by Euphie’s side till the very end. But there are many days before that day yet.

Suzaku withdraws, standing up to hand one of the clean shirts to Lelouch. “Your Majesty.”

CC huffs, amused, somewhere to the side and out of sight.

He takes the shirt. He watches Suzaku for a moment, silent, no doubt considering all that Suzaku just did and what he might have meant with it, then visibly decides to save it for later as he turns away and shrugs on the shirt. “Have the guards found the sniper yet?”

“Not yet.” Suzaku’s more irritated by this fact than Lelouch. He should consult with the soldiers, ask about their progress, but he’s loath to leave Lelouch. Something twists painful like a panic attack in his chest when he imagines something happening to him in his absence. There were two assassination attempts in the last hour and everyone in this building is incompetent except for CC and Lelouch. And Lelouch cannot die. Not yet. The moment must be exactly right. The fucking point of Suzaku having to kill him in the first place is that the time and place and circumstances have to be exactly right. It’s the most critical point of the whole plan. Failure would be unacceptable in such a plan. If Lelouch insists on dying, then it’ll damn well have to be a perfect death.

Someone knocks on the door; Suzaku’s hand goes to his gun.

“Yes?” says Lelouch, haughty and bored, and turns around, still buttoning up his shirt.

A soldier steps inside and sinks into a bow upon spotting the emperor. “Your Majesty. Lord Kururugi, Sir, we’ve apprehended the perpetrator.”

Lelouch looks at Suzaku. “We’ll be coming,” he tells the soldier. Suzaku’s grip on his gun relaxes, and he finally aims it at the floor. He’s decided that the three of them will be leaving together. They will not be separated, and in this moment Suzaku won’t have to choose between doing his job and doing his duty.


End file.
